Ragnesis is a wonderful world that survived two global disasters, with its history lasting for several thousands years. It’s a world full of secrets and mysteries.

Nobody knows who and when created this world, but primeval Ragnesis was a horrifying view. Its entire surface was an endless sequence of narrow valleys and sharp-pointed mountain peaks – such a pile of sharp angles and edges; a mixture of all the possible hues of red and black. Landscapes that were dried up with winds and looked lifeless at first sight actually were populated with living things: horrible blood-thirsty creatures. Some of them – called an’leh-Dahrgs – had just rudimentary intellect. Others were their masters (they were also masters of entire Ragnesis); they were called mor’leh-Gharrs. These were powerful creatures with magical abilities.

That’s what Ragnesis was like when the Celestials, mysterious pilgrims between worlds, appeared here. Nobody knows where they were going and why they decided to descend to this world, this simply happened: in a saber-form canyon where the dry crust-covered ground was speckled with a net of fissures, and slopes of mountains yawned with their black cave holes.

It was a twist of fate that a huge pack of an’leh-Dahrgs had their den there. Having received mor’leh-Gharrs’ telepathic order, these creatures immediately rushed to the newcomers, like a thousand of arrows shot in a single moment: they were fierce, violent, and lethiferous. The celestials that have just found themselves in Ragnesis missed just a couple of moments to realize what was going on, and the creatures were already assaulting them and crushed some of them.

The arrivals’ respond was dreadful: in a blink their strong blow, like a huge blade of light, annihilated all the living things in the canyon, made deep furrows, and demolished the remote mountainsides. Mor’leh-Gharrs could hear this blow echoing and realized that from then on their unlimited power over Ragnesis was threatened.

Certainly, they were not going to give up for no reason. And the Celestials too (be it because they wanted to avenge their killed brothers, or for some other reason) remained in Ragnesis to fight against mor’leh-Gharrs.

Their confrontation had been lasting for several years, and at the end of the lingering war the mor’leh-Gharrs and other primeval creatures were nearly completely destroyed. But the power of the fighting parties was so large, and the magic used in the battles was so strong that eventually the world split into two unequal parts. The smaller part was completely isolated; and that is where the last inhabitants of primeval Ragnesis sought shelter from the Celestials’ anger. The larger part which became the Celestials’ belonging was unbelievably mutilated in battles and looked deformed and miserable.

”And then, — says “the Creation Hymn”, the most ancient written scriptures of the Gitlaries, — They turned Heavenly Water back, and They planted trees and grass, and They raised up mountains with their peaks enveloped in clouds, and They sent rivers to rush merrily and sonorously through emerald valleys and fresh-air forests, and They cleaned seas and oceans, and They populated Ragnesis with various beasts, birds, and reptiles, and They assigned each of them their place and their role for harmony to reign in the world from now on and forever. And the world was perfect, as far as it is possible to be perfect for a world that had survived destruction and that still recovered”.

But it was erlanies (meaning “those who bring liberation”) who became the Celestials’ major creation. Each of the five survived Celestials created His own nations: Lahrden created the Etreions, Shargan created the Bushtargs, Maysville created the Giltaries, Ahlarenn created the Saihens, and Rahukar created the Faldorts. They settled their peoples in Ragnesis and took care about them; they helped them giving advice and making deeds, they judged them and protected them, and they told them how the world is arranged...

The Celestials themselves lived on the Heavenly Island they had created, and they visited Ragnesis only to help their creatures…

As years went by, little by little nations familiarized themselves with this world; they learnt how to live according to the Celestials’ admonitions; they composed songs and made up legends; they raised cities and paved the roads – and then trade caravans were following the beaten tracks; and while visiting towns and villages merchants brought news about remote countries along with their rare commodity. Nations of Ragnesis were communicating with each other closer and closer learning how to understand each other…

The Celestials still played huge role in the lives of their people, but at that time it was already difficult for them to help to everybody, since too many erlanies came into the world. Besides, Ragnesis nations already were able to cope with most difficulties on their own.

So, it was becoming more seldom that the Celestial would descend to Ragnesis; besides, they would talk only to those erlanies who were most developed in terms of their inner life and spirituality. Such erlanies enjoyed respect of their congeners, and soon they turned into some kind of “authorized representatives” of the Creators; they became their ministers. Since then the Celestials started communicating with their nations only through their priests.

And then later again their contacts with priest began to occur just once a year, at the plateau between lands of the Saihens and the Etreions. The plateau consisted of two parts: the lower part was much larger than the upper one. It was the lower part of the plateau that used to turn into a camp for numerous companions of priests as they came to meet the Celestials. Among those fellow-travelers were the priests’ servants and guards, as well as devoted believers who would arrive to the plateau every year just to stay close to the place where the Celestials descended.

The upper part of the plateau was located several hundred meters above the lower one and was relatively small and cozy. This part has been chosen by the Celestials to meet their priests. In modest sanctuaries they used to answer the priest’s questions, admonished them and proclaimed their will.

Very soon these annual trips turned into nations-wide celebrations which were visited by old and young alike from all over the world. Many erlanies desired to learn sooner what the Celestials had told to the priests; besides such meetings facilitated trade and exchange of knowledge and information.

Words of the Celestials addressed to their nations were mostly concise and not numerous. The creators wanted their creatures to live in peace with their neighbors, to make rational use of Ragnesis’ resources, and to keep praying to the Celestials.

This was really the routine for hundreds of years: the nations mostly lived in peace, even though sometimes slight incidents would occur. But one day a centuries-old harmony that had seemed unshakable was disturbed. During one of their regular advents the Celestials informed they would stop these meetings from then on. The creators considered Ragnesis’ nations to be independent enough so they needed no care any more. Now they had to rely solely on their own and not to expect any assistance from above. The Celestials promised they would interfere only if worst came to worst.

This news brought by the priests has promptly spread all over Ragnesis and it has stunned the erlanies. Many people panicked and were confused, they believed the world had come to its end and disasters and misfortunes are doomed to fall upon the nations, and there’d be no salvation and no mercy.

Luckily, there were enough sober-mined erlanies who managed to reassure their fellow-citizens. (But there were others too who decided that the Celestials’ exodus would permit committing unhindered and unpunished misdeeds).

Whether it was a disappointing coincidence or the creators’ intent, but the fact is that the following years changed the lives of Ragnesis’ nations to the worse. Among the annoying incidents were: several accidents, too severe winters and too dry summers; besides, discords between erlanies also broke out. Suspicious tramps and beggars appeared in large cities and propagated in squares and streets to blame neighboring nations: they proclaimed it was their foreign neighbors’ depravity that caused the Celestials’ exodus. Especially ardent believers trusted those tales and decided to improve the situation by uniting into small groups and attacking foreigners. At first governments managed to restrain their nationals – at least to prevent wars, even though some blood has already been shed and the first victims have suffered. But finally, alas, it was neither wisdom of politicians, nor priests’ admonitions that would be able to prevent the notorious slaughter in residential area of Saihens in Bushtarg’s capital called Heighrumbargoon…

This resulted in the first massive war in the history of Ragnesis between Saihens and Bushtargs; eventually this war has engaged all the other nations. The war has been lasting for over a century: once it would fade down, then it would inflame again…

As the first century after the Celestial’s exodus has passed the war broke out with great intensity and has nearly caused the erlanies omnicide.

Armies of all the five nations confronted each other at a large battle field in the Crowned valley. And when horns blared and the battle-order was given, and the armies moved clankingly towards each other with sullen inevitability – then something unconceivable has happened. The battle field was suddenly covered with silence: drums fell silent and shouts of cheering up warriors ceased; erlanies and their fighting animals became paralyzed and motionless. And nobody could produce any sound, or gesture, or glance to express the deep horror that has run though hearts of all of them: all those people simultaneously were disabled to move and they froze as they stood. A warrior who lifted his sword was standing motionless with his hand raised above his enemy’s head; an archer who has just bent a bow was standing still with a tight bowstring at his cheek; a spear aimed just at someone’s heart has frozen on its half-way; a recruit who has stumbled kept falling down and wasn’t able to fall.

For several hours they stood motionless as that was the Celestials will. Only the erlanies’ eyes could look above, because a shining bright scarlet cloud appeared above the Crowned valley, and every person who came there that day to shed his or his enemy’s blood could hear wrathful voices in their hearts: these voices commanded them to remember that day once and for all and never to dare acting against their creators’ will who wish that Ragnesis never encountered such wars from that time onwards. This world is not a place for battles that can wipe entire nations off the face of the earth.

That was one of the last appearances of the Celestials against erlanies. They managed to prevent the most massive bloodshed in the history of Ragnesis, however they couldn’t keep their creatures from a number of small local wars that would break out and cease now and then – those wars were not as overall as that old war, but they still were as disastrous for the widows and orphans they caused. The Celestials did not hurry to stop those wars; hence they believed them to be not so dangerous on a world scale.

Since then they seemed to leave the world forever. Only Lahrden, a creator of the Etreions did not forget His nation and kept secretly visiting His priests to grant the knowledge which was not available to other erlanies. He revealed to them such knowledge that other Celestials never risked disclosing to Their priests. Above all, it was information about structure of the world and of its energy constituent, about the very basics of the Celestials power and about origin of Their talent for creating worlds and living beings.

While Lahrden was endowing the Etreions with such knowledge He believed sincerely that He was doing a nice thing. But this only resulted in His priests becoming haughty and self-assured. They had no doubts about their power and that all other Ragnesis’ nations were retrograde and deprived of the Celestials’ favor. Because of the knowledge available to its priests, the Etreions’ country called Rantayol was increasingly becoming prosperous, while the Etreions have become dead-sure that they were the lord of creation and the best of Ragnesis nations.

Many of them really did know about the world much more than the Faldorts, the Giltaries, the Saihens, or the Bushtargs did. Unfortunately, knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Finally, several supreme priests, being convinced they were the greatest and possessed the deepest knowledge about the world structure, made up their mind to become equal to the Celestials and get the same power over entire Ragnesis. To achieve this they intended to perform the most complicated ritual to subdue energy of entire Ragnesis and to bend it to their will. To complete this they needed a great number of fragments of stones of power that the priests started to hunt out all over the world sparing no time and efforts. It took several decades before the self-assured priests of Lahrden managed to collect over two thousand of such fragments.

Finally, one day when interaction of energy flow was the most fortunate for what they were up to, the priests came into a magicians tower not far from the capital of the Etreions – Dellirahd, where all the power stones fragments had already been prepared for the ritual.

At a fixed time the ritual began: the priests released energy from a “junction” above which the tower had been constructed… but they couldn’t cope with the power they set free. A shining column of primeval energy in a split second ruined the tower itself and the priest in the tower, and plunged into the black sky like a sword of flame. The night turned into the day, and this day was the most terrible of all that Ragensis’ nations had ever seen, since the breach in the world’ energy structure has entailed something that had never occurred before: the primeval energy spread over the sky and swooped back to the earth and pierced it in the places where other “junctions” of energy were located. Heavens shuddered and mountains were shaken; rivers boiled up and burst the banks; huge fissures coiled where fertile valleys used to be; in place of some towns fathomless pits appeared. Chaos and panic reigned.

The world was collapsing, since its basis was damaged, and only intervention of Lahrden prevented Ragnesis from irrevocable destruction. The Celestial rushed into the very center of the rupture that His priests had caused, and He managed to join the broken energy channels and to bind together the world’s entire energy structure.

But Lahrden died. And Ragnesis which has lost so much energy also couldn’t remain the same: it broke into individual fragments that from then on were destined to float in an ocean of merrel — a gray lifeless mist.

Only a small part remained from what once was the vast and flourishing world – but it was still better that the irrevocable destruction that threatened Ragnesis if Lahrden hadn’t stopped the terrible disaster.

Ragnesis now turned into hundreds of large and small islands: the Etreions’ country along with its inhabitants have vanished completely in a hearth of the Great Collapse, as well as many other parts of the world. Those erlanies who survived were in despair, they didn’t know what they could expect from their destiny. The Celestials didn’t come any more, and the surrounding world changed at once. Now traveling between islands was possible only by means of portals , not all of them being stable and safe. Besides, the disaster not only distorted Ragnesis’ appearance, it also gave rise to many new strange and dangerous monsters.

And Ragnesis’ nations have changed too; their attitude towards each other became different. Now what matters is not only being of a particular nation (the Bushtargs, the Faldorts, the Giltaries, and the Saihens), another importance is clans people belong to. It is clans that now make a new history of Ragnesis: they dictate their will and govern islands, while the most powerful clans rule over entire countries too!

In the dashing continuous round of events of the new era – the Era of Clans – everybody can raise and become famous and add his or her name into Ragnesis’ new history.